St. Augustine's newest concert location, The Standard, opens Nov. 2

With a host of world-class music options in St. Augustine, another new concert spot might not seem like a big deal. But The Standard, which occupies the 200 Anastasia Blvd. location that’s housed venues such as Christopher’s, Augie Doggs and Two Hundred Lounge, promises to be different.

Helmed by former St. Augustine Amphitheatre marketing and promotions manager Dan Larson, The Standard boasts a brand-new PA system, an acoustically treated interior for maximum sound quality, and two different rooms that will allow for varying levels of intimacy.

Larson, who grew up in Melbourne before moving to St. Augustine in 2008 to help usher in the Amphitheatre’s rise to national acclaim, says he has big plans for The Standard: “I’m aiming to make it legendary — an epic venue like The Fillmore.”

If The Standard’s inaugural show is any indication, those ambitions are on their way to fruition.

Gainesville indie-folk quintet Hundred Waters will perform on the venue’s opening night, Nov. 2. But this isn’t a case of another North Florida band playing their umpteenth Oldest City show.

Instead, Hundred Waters makes their first trip to St. Augustine on the heels of a blockbuster summer and fall. They’ve toured with celebrated electro acts Grimes, Pretty Lights and Skrillex, the latter of whom signed Hundred Waters to his OWSLA label.

They’ve earned high praise from such celebrated media outlets as Pitchfork.com and The New York Times. And less than two weeks ago, they performed multiple sold-out concerts at CMJ, the taste-making annual music-industry gathering in New York City.

So consider Hundred Waters’ performance at The Standard not just as a fantastic opening show at what should be a fantastic new venue — it’s also a chance to see a North Florida band operating at peak performance on their way to worldwide musical domination.

Drift caught up with Hundred Waters frontwoman Nicole Miglis to talk about the band’s incredible trajectory, its Gainesville roots and its embrace of forward motion.

Drift: So how was CMJ in New York? Spin.com named you one of 25 Must-See Acts.

Nicole Miglis: It was pretty crazy. The only daunting part was finding parking —other than that, it was a lot of fun.

Drift: Hundred Waters will play the first show ever at The Standard, St. Augustine’s newest venue. Have you guys played the Oldest before?

NM: We never have. We’ve been over to the beach from Gainesville a lot, but this will be our first time playing there. We have a lot of friends in St. Augustine, though.

Drift: Does North Florida’s natural surroundings, or Gainesville’s music scene for that matter, have much of an effect on Hundred Waters’ music?

NM: It’s hard to pinpoint exactly. There’s a really close-knit music scene in Gainesville; the city’s laid out to be easily walkable and bikable. Everybody lives close to each other, too, so it’s easy to go to a friend’s house and hear the music they’re working on. But I’m not sure what influence that has on our music. Surroundings aren’t as important because everybody has access to anything on the Internet.

Drift: How hard is it to perform the songs off your self-titled debut album live? It seems like there’s tons of layers that would be hard to translate on stage.

NM: When we wrote the album, we never had any intention of playing it — we weren’t even really writing it as a band. We were all living in the same house, though, so we took advantage of having a summer to work on music. There wasn’t a preconception of playing it when we were making it. But it was received really well when we put it out, and there were opportunities for us to play it, so that’s when we started thinking about how to realize what we made.

Drift: Did the speed with which those opportunities arrived surprise you and your bandmates?

NM: We were talking about this the other day: the progression of things feels natural, although I don’t think we expected that record to take us as far as it did. I’m personally surprised at how far we’ve come — we definitely didn’t think we’d be living off of it or touring with Skrillex and Grimes. It’s incredible, but we have a lot more music and art to make, so we’re trying to focus on that without getting too absorbed in the popularity of that record.

Drift: On your first national tour last year, you guys traveled around the country on a veggie-oil-powered school bus provided by your friends in Lighthouse Music. What was that experience like?

NM: It was amazing — really surreal. We got to go to a lot of beautiful places, and we’re all really grateful that we can play this music that we’re passionate about for our friends and family and the people that we love. It’s a humbling experience and we’re really grateful.

Drift: So no more day jobs, huh?

NM: Yeah [laughs], this is our job right now. Tray has two classes left in school, but he quit right before we left; Zack quit his job; Paul has one more year left on his master's; and I quit the job I was working.

Drift: When you guys record your next album, do you think you’ll be able to duplicate or even maintain the intimacy that surrounded the first one?

NM: I don’t necessarily know if we can write a record how we wrote the last one, although I think writing music on the road is more true to where we are right now. Before we had a lot of solitude at home in our rooms, and it’s a lot different now. So it almost feels more true to write in motion and not in a secluded house. We’re definitely going to be writing it a lot differently.

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Hundred Waters perform at 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2 at The Standard, 200 Anastasia Blvd. Le Blorr opens the show, and tickets are $10. More information can be found at www.TheStandardFL.com or by calling 321-412-6191.